Clay-tempering blade.



VWWW .fw'fh *'Ar CLAY TBMPBRING BLADE.

APPLIOATION FILED JULY 3, 1908.

978,536, Patented Deo. 13, 1910.

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PATENT onirica.

JULIUS H. BACH, OIE' CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR OF TWO-THIRDS TO THEAMERICAN CLAY MACHINERY CO., OF BUCYRUS, OHIO, A CORPORATION.

CLAY-TEMPERING BLADE.

'Application filed July 3, 1908. Serial No. 441,767.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JULIUs IVI. BACH, a citizen of the United States,residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Clay- Tempering Blades,of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to certain new and useful improvements inmachines designed particularly for mixing or tempering of clay and whichrotary beaters reduce and pulverize clay for the manufacture of brickand other purposes; and the invention consists of the parts and theconstructions and combinations of parts which I will hereinafterdescribe and claim.

In the manufacture of clay products, principally brick, very often thereis foreign matter in the clay, usually in the form of stone, whichcatches between the tempering blades or beaters and the shell of themill which mixes the water with the clay, and to overcome thisdifliculty by a simple and effective means and to avoid delays andexpensive break-downs, is the essential object of the present invention,said invention comprehending a two-part blade or knife which is designedto collapse under a predetermined strain whereby upon meeting anincompressible object, as a stone, the working member of the blade orknife will be permitted to swing rearwardly into an inoperativeposition, but will remain attached to its shaft or carrier instead ofbreaking olf and dropping into the shell of the mill Where it is liableto be passed into the brick machine along with the clay, to the possibleinjury of the knives or blades of this latter machine.

In the accompanying drawings forming part of this specification and inwhich similar reference numerals indicate like parts in the severalviews, Figure l, is a side elevation of a knife and its shank, and crosssection of the shaft, the full lines showing the knife in its operatingposition, and the dotted lines showing the knife collapsed. Fig. 2, isthe side elevation of a portion of the shaft with a part broken away andan edge view of the knife and its shank, Fig. 3, 1s a cross sectionalview of the outer end of the knife, on the line A-A in Fig. 1, Fig. 4f,is a cross sectional view on the line B B of Fig.`l, Fig. 5, is asectional view on the line C-C of Fig. 2.

In the aforesaid drawings I have illustrated only so much of a pug millor like ma-` chine as will illustrate the salient features of myinvention, it being understood that this mill may be of any appropriatecharacter and that it will include a shell or casing not shown, and theusual tempering shaft, l, which shaft will, in practice, be bored with aseries of holes, 2, which in practice will be bored on a spiral line inorder to set the tempering knives or blades at different positionsaround the shaft. As this arrangement of knives is well known, I do notillustrate the same but confine the illustration to a single knife orblade and the means by which it is removably and adjustably secured tosaid shaft. The holes, 2, extend only partway through the shaft, say toa point slightly beyond the center thereof, and said shaft is also boredwith a hole 3, which eX- tends clear through the shaft and has oneportion intersecting the hole, 2, and adapted to receive a suitable key,4, by which the shank of the tempering knife or blade, hereinafterdescribed, may be engaged and suitably held in position. The holes, 2,are preferably of circular form, although they may be otherwise made,and the tempering knife or blade has one of its parts provided with ashank, 5, which in shape and size is adapted to fit the opening, 2,formed in said shaft, and to be engaged by the aforesaid key. Thatportion of the shank which projects beyond the perimeter of the shaft 1sflattened to form a seat, 7 on which the corresponding iiattened inne-rend of the tempering blade or knife rests and is held in positionthereto by suitable bolts 9 and 10, which have their heads countersunkbelow the outer side of said blade or knife, said bolts being securelyheld by suitable nuts, as shown.

By reference to Figs. l and 2 it will be seen that the securing bolts, 9and 10 are of different diameters or sizes and are located at differentdistances from and exterior to the perimeter of the shaft, the outermostbolt being much smaller than the innermost bolt, 9, whereby the bolt,10, is of less strength than the bolt, 9, and is adapted to yield or beruptured under a predetermined strain. In other words, if the workingmember or Aao the upper portion of the two-part tempering blade or knifeshould, during the operation of the same, meet an incompressible object,as a stone and this stone should catch between the surface or point 11,of the knife and the cylinder of the machine, the resistance offered bysaid stone or incompressible object will be transmitted to the smallerand weaker bolt, l0, and will cause this bolt to shear off and thuspermit the knife to turn about the other bolt., 9, as an axis andfoldbackward from the direction of rotation of the shaft, 1, and upon saidshaft, thereby preventing the tempering vblade or knife from breakingoff and becoming detached from the part which. carries it and catchingother knives, or passing from the tempering or pug-mill into thebrick-machine, where it is liable to catch the knives of said machineand break them, or do other damage.

As the outer end of the working member of the tempering knife or bladewears more rapidly than the body of the same, I thicken or reinforcesaid end as shown at 12, to com* pensate for the increased wear and thusprolong the life of the knife and thereby lower or reduce the expense ofrenewing the tempering blades.

In its operative condition, the tempering blade or knife occupies theposition shown by the full lines in Fig. l and the shaft, l, operates inthe direction of the arrow. Upon the knife or blade meeting a stone orincompressible object sufficient to shear the bolt, 10, the bladeimmediately swings from the full line position of Fig. 1 into the dottedposition in said Fig. 1. The blade may be restored to its normal workingposition byshutting down the pug-mill and swinging the working member ofthe blade about thebolt, 9, into the full line position of Fig. 1 andthen inserting anew bolt, 10, 'when the machine mayjbe again started vin`vwell recognized in this art that as eiin blades wear in length the oft ie machine decreases, and in overcome this depreciation the key,

disabled blade into its proper position and insert a new bolt, l0.Considerable advantage also results from the specific shape given theworking portion of the blade or knife. It will be observed that theblade has a greater radius on its front edge than on the rear edge, theouter end of said blade curving or declining from the front cornertoward the rear corner whereby the radius is reduced quite a little. Byreason of this construction the effect on the material which may be inthe hopper of the granulator is for the point of the blade or knife toraise the material and the back of the blade being shorter will allowthe material to fall in back of the blade and consequently thesucceeding blade will engage and disintegrate the material and force thesame forward.

, By the use of the ordinary blades having the same radiusfrom theshaft, and where the blade has its greatest radius at thecenter, theblade has a tendency to hold the material up for too long a time andconsequently the following blade will be in a vertical position or verynearly so, before the material has an opportunity of 'dropping down inthe granulat-or and give the following knives a chance to properly acton the material.

Having thus described my invention what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent is:

l. A tempering blade consisting of a! .portion being substantiallywedge-shaped in cross section with the thickest portion at the rear, andhaving its outer extremity thickened to form a reinforce therefor, thethickest portion of the reinforceY being at 'the center of saidextremity and tapering from the center toward the back and front edges.v

In testimony whereof I aiiiX my signature in presence of two witnesses.

' JULIUS H. BACH. Witnesses:

A. O. PEnRoTT, W. M. HUBBELL.

